After almost 14 years, a community project to recognise two young Australian airmen who died when their Mosquito plane crashed during the Second World War is becoming a reality.

Pilot officers Edward (Ted) Wicky, 22, and his 21-year-old navigator pilot officer Oswald Mountford of the Royal Air Force died in the early hours of February 5, 1945, on their way home from a bombing raid over the Ruhr in Germany.

It is unclear what happened, but their two-man De Havilland Mosquito crashed through Horndean’s parish hall, killing both men, just three miles away from RAF Thorney Island, their home airfield.

The crash site on Five Heads Road remained unmarked until 2005, when a group of pensioners, known as the Horndean Children of the 1940s, began campaigning for a garden of remembrance commemorating the flyers.

They managed, with help from students at Horndean Technology College, to get an information board about the tragedy erected on the site.

The pensioners then began campaigning for a monument and memorial garden.

And now, after numerous setbacks, Hampshire County Council contractors Skanska will be starting work on the site at the junction of Five Heads Road and London Road.

The contractors will lay foundations for a £15,000 memorial monument, and it will be delivered next Wednesday, October 16, by stone masons J Rotherham from Yorkshire.

Project manager Graham Parsons said: “The idea of a garden of remembrance and monument was started by the Horndean Children of the 1940s and seemed an impossible task.

“These members, now all in their 80s, will finally see their vision come true. This has been the result of many years of campaigning and fundraising.

“The monument will serve as a poignant reminder of the sacrifice made by these two brave young men and preserve an important part of the wartime history of Horndean.”

Meon Valley MP George Hollingberry has been a keen supporter of the project.

He said: “The bravery and sacrifice of these men has not been forgotten, with many still remembering the terrible events of that night.

“It is fitting that a place to reflect on what happened should be built and that these young men, who died thousands of miles from home, should not be forgotten.”